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Ok; continuing on from where we left off last week, albeit with a similar but different blaster. Nerf’s Retaliator is the elite version of the old N-Strike Recon. I was always relatively partial to the Recon, it was my first Nerf branded blaster, so I was interested to see what could be done to the Retaliator. This week we’ll be briefly covering the AR removal process that we did last week on the Rampage, the process is essentially the same between the two blasters, and adding an additional spring.

Then the rest of the screws in the shell. They’re all the same size except one.

This screw at the front of the blaster is significantly longer than the rest. Remember this when it comes to reassembly.

You might not notice at first but there are also two screws hiding under the cocking mechanism. Pull it back to reveal them.

Once they’re all out you’ll be able to separate the shell. As always, take a few moments to familiarise yourself with the internals.

Comfortable? Good. Time to continue the disassembly process.

We’ll start by removing the spring.

Then the catch.

Then the plunger assembly.

Pull the breech back a little.

Like so.

Then lift it out.

Here you can see the new dart stopper. It’s much better than the old one in the Recon.

Ok, back to the breech.

I forgot to take a photo from this angle so here’s the breech from the Rampage. Apart from the priming bar extending forward it’s essentially the same thing. Using a small screwdriver, push this rod all the way out.

Allowing us to separate your breech from the bolt sled.

Grab your drill and go to town on the AR.

Then clean it up with a hand file

Place the breech back in the bolt sled and replace the bar.

Ok, AR removal done; time to start work on the spring addition and to move to the back of the blaster.

When we first put the NIteFinder spring in, you’ll notice that it’s too big. This means we can’t close the blaster and that it obviously won’t work.

So lets fix that! Grab your Dremel and remove just enough of the shell so that the spring fits. Take this process very slowly, checking at every step of the way. If you remove too much, the spring won’t seat correctly and it all might not work.

It should be able to close cleanly with the larger spring in place.

Once you’re satisfied with the shell mods, clean up the burred/melted plastic with a knife.

Now remove the plunger from the tube. Some people have said that you have to heat up the plunger tube to get the back orange ring off in order to do this. Nuts to that, just pull it out at an angle and it will come out just fine. Nothing fancy required.

Here we can see the inside of the plunger head. The dead space in between the X is what we’re going to fill.

With hot glue. Don’t fill over the X as it will then interfere with the priming of the blaster.

Enough of the mods, time for reassembly! Place the bolt sled back in the shell, taking notice of lining up the priming handle too.

Put the plunger back in the tube.

Then the tube back in the blaster.

Then the catch. The cutout should face forward, spring side down.

Then replace the spring. Start with the stock spring, then slide the stock NiteFinder spring over the top of it.

You’ll notice that the spring is slightly too long. That’s ok, it’s easier to continue with it hanging out a little. We can push it back in once the blaster is half together.

Replace the other half of the shell, put a few screws in the front, then push the springs in the back. You should then be able to hold it together while you replace the rest of the screws.

Reattach the end cap and we’re done.

It’s stupidly windy outside at the moment so I can’t give you a definitive range increase over just the AR removal but from basic testing, it’s freaking impressive. I used it in a game this past weekend, range would be close to my BT modded Stampede.

I was wondering if you could remove the spring guide in the back of the plunger, without any ill effects. I’m looking to modify/paint one of these to look like the 10mm pistol from Fallout, however the spring guide makes the back way too long to look correctly.

It’s filling dead space in front of the plunger which means there’s less space for the air to get compressed in and more will be forced towards the dart. However is such a small amount that it couldn’t change much.